The drug makers were weaker, with Takeda Pharmaceutical down 180 yen or 4.71 percent, Astellas Pharma down 50 yen or 1.53 percent and DaiiChi Sankyo down 28 yen or 1.60 percent.

Telecoms had another strong session, with KDDI up 14,000 yen or 2.93 percent, NTT DoCoMo up 1,600 yen or 1.12 percent, NTT Data up 6,300 yen or 2.29 percent, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone up 90 yen or 2.32 percent and Softbank up 41 yen or 3.05 percent.

Stocks on Wall Street closed with gains that again accelerated late in the trading session. At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 174.75 points or 2.25 percent at 7,924.56. On the broader market averages, the Nasdaq Composite index was up 58.05 points or 3.80 percent at 1,587.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 18.98 points or 2.33 percent at 832.86.

Most major markets around the Asia/Pacific region closed higher on Thursday.